In 2010-2011 or so, I came across HQ forums searching for something else actually. I never owned a copy, but I'd played it a couple of times and had a blast. I decided I wanted a copy. Of course, complete copies in good condition cost too much even then.
But y'know, I'd had a rough time. A really rough time. I'd been recently discriminated out of a career (they conspired via email—one of 'em was dumb enough to accidentally post the every email with my name in it to a public folder where the whole department could, and did, read the details…) and then one month after my 32nd birthday, literally to the day, I found out I had cancer. I'd later learn it was metastatic melanoma—stage 4, 30/70 odds of survival after five years.
So I went looking for a copy of the game I loved, but never had. And the prices … were too high for a complete copy in good shape. Best I could do was a copy missing some components with a couple of scrunched doors, a split-cornered box, a couple of the boards and doors beginning to split into layers at the edges. It cost me $90 plus shipping. I paid it, and did some reading about how one properly repairs/restores the cardboard bits.
Tacky PVA glue can be used to repair split game box corners almost better than new if you've got two good surfaces to apply glue to, a good corner form (an L bracket), some clips, and patience to line it all up carefully. I did that. The result is good enough I don't think you'd ever know if I didn't show you the tear lines. The fraying cardboard got hit with a good bit of clear nail polish and clamped flat. I hit the other card edge with the same stuff to seal and protect them. This you might notice, if you looked at the edges of the cardboard, because they have that laquered look to them, but again, if I didn't tell you to look, you'd never know.
Two more eBays provided the missing parts and I had a complete copy of HeroQuest in pretty good shape, with some preventative care. A couple years later, I wound up having to move, had even less space, and my copy of the game ended up at my fiancée's parent's place, along with my copy of Mice and Mystics and a copy of AHQ and the AHQ paint set I got basically unused for a song! Didn't really ever get any use out of the AHQ stuff either—the paints were dry as a bone the day I bought them, but I knew they would be. It remains basically unused because … it's a different game, entirely.
As much as I loved HeroQuest the few games I got to play as a kid, it honestly has a much deeper meaning as an adult. And … I'm still here to revisit it. Stopped the chemo in 2019—although that was a mistake, I had a new tumor last January. Back on it, which sucks because it has side effects I've had to get used to all over again. It'll be six months before they fade if experience is worth anything. *shrug*
And 2020 just sucked otherwise in general, naturally. Up to and including finding out that Hasbro was going to reprint HeroQuest—AFTER the crowdfunding ended and I was locked out of any exclusives. I don't know how I'd have justified it to my fiancée in the middle of 2020 … but I would have found a way.
GETTING TO THE POINT
I have the original 35 minis. With all the quest packs, if you had them all, you'd have an army of minis more than three times that. And while I'd have found the way somehow to drop $150 on the Hasbro Pulse thing even in the middle of 2020 if I had the option, I can't drop more than that on Kellar's Keep alone. The expansions are unobtanium.
So: New "old" minis to fill out what I have, or a whole new set of minis and I build a nice shelf display for the classic collectable ones?
I know there are fan models for e.g. Ulag and Rogar and others—but are there fan-made models of basic skeletons, orcs, etc as well that'd fit right next to the originals? How about the figs unique to the expansion? If these all exist, for the cost of printing, amd I better off placing a large order with Reaper? I missed the window for their latest Kickstarter, dammit, that could've gone a long way toward making that prospect cheaper with the right option additions.
The other option for the originals is casts/prints of the originals. Copyright-wise that's a nono. It's also Hasbro's and GW's problem. Again, if the quality is good, they're not misrepresented as being what they aren't or stealing someone else's work, and they're offered at a fair price, it's Hasbro's and GW's problem, not mine. (Admittedly, I don't know what a fair price would. I know what Zealot minis sell for and they're 3D prints.)
The other option I guess is hope Hasbro prints all the expansion packs. If Hasbro produces HQ stuff, I'm buying it all. And that'll continue right about until they start producing quest packs that don't look like they've even been playtested once with cardboard standees instead of figures or something dumb like that. This is Hasbro we're talking about here.
No really, though, I mean it: It doesn't matter what they do to the rules or the lore. The new base game is going to come with a 25mm board—something the game has always needed in many people's opinion. It'll have a whole (base) pack of minis in the D&D style, which means any Hasbro D&D minis you want to use will fit right in. And … and what? They're not (yet) trying to take away Phoenix's remakes. If they do … they'll discover that they can't.
If they publish expansions beyond the crowdfunding, so much the better. It means I'll have those parts too. If their new stuff is sanitized BS to avoid offending people who're never going to play the game or whatever (apparently that's a problem for D&D right now), we'll just homebrew stuff like we always have here.I mean, the budget isn't quite unlimited here (especially if I'm building a mini army this spring before they release anything in the fall), but if they're aiming for anything in the neighborhood of $100 for the base game and $50 for two expansions, I'm there for all of them.
Until last week, I didn't know Zealot existed—I've been so out of this stuff.I find myself wishing I had a printer now. I suspect I could print literally everything I could ever want at this point. Might not be the cheapest way to get minis, particularly since I'd need to factor in the cost of the printer. Still, that means that there's options out there I don't know about.
So … any of you in my position, what would you do about moar minis right now?
